Can I buy a phone from cingular and make it a prepaid phone?
Yes, Cingular will be more than happy to sell you a phone at full price and activate it on a prepaid plan. Of course, if you’re interested in saving money, it’s significantly cheaper to buy a Cingular prepaid SIM card from eBay and the unlocked GSM phone of your choice (If it’s a dual or tri-band phone, make sure it has the North American 850MHz band, otherwise Cingular coverage will be very poor or nonexistant) from whoever’s selling it at the best price. Keep in mind, data on Cingular’s prepaid service is $10 bucks per megabyte, so using a more expensive phone is more about looks than actual functionality. You likely won’t want to use a web browser, download ringtones (even from a “free” site, a 30 second 64kbit MP3 ringtones will cost you $2.42 in data fees!), send picture mail or use web-enabled smarphone features as they can easily run your balance down in a matter of minutes. If you still want Cingular’s prepaid service, consider buying a phone which allows transfer of ringtones
